Every Day Our Love is So Brand-New
by TwinklingCupcake
Summary: Tonight's Girl's Night was different, more serious. And so far, only Yesss was aware of it. post-WIR2


"Okay, stop me if you know this one."

"M-kay..."

"What's black and white...and black and white...and black and white...and black and white?"

"Mmmmm, a penguin rolling downhill?"

"Yep! But what's black and white and laughing?"

"What?"

Vanellope grinned toothily. "The penguin who pushed him."

Yesss ducked her head, snorting and nearly making cola come out her nose. It wasn't _that_ funny, admittedly, it was a goofy kid's joke, but the way Vanellope looked so pleased with herself as she delivered the punchline made it seem like the best joke in the world. "Did you make that one up?"

"Nah, Ralph told me that one." Vanellope took another huge bite out of her Burger Time burger, squeezing ketchup messily out the corners of her mouth. "I th'nk 'e 'eard it f'rm someone a' Tapper's."

"Don't talk with your mouth full." The words came automatically as Yesss passed the kid a napkin.

Vanellope rolled her eyes half-heartedly. "Yeah, _Mom_."

She'd said it sarcastically, but it still gave Yesss a little pause. It'd been months since Vanellope had slipped up, panicking and calling her "Mom" when she'd been infected by a virus. She didn't do it again since then. And Yesss didn't push it or pry. It didn't need to be said - just as she didn't need to say Ralph was her dad or call him "Dad" for them to know it was true.

Okay, part of that was a little lie; Vanellope did have a habit of sarcastically referring to them as "Mom" or "Dad" when they told her not to do something. But that wasn't the same, that didn't count. And normally, neither Yesss nor Ralph thought anything of it.

Today, though... Today was different. And so far only Yesss was aware of it.

"-like I said, I think he heard it from a guy at Tapper's. I dunno who, though - probably Tapper himself."

"Probably." Yesss crushed her soda cup and finished the last of her sweet potato fries. She'd ordered less than Vanellope, not trusting her stomach at the moment. Today it seemed to be flipping around, and she didn't want to upset it worse. "When you're done with your food, where do you want to go?"

Vanellope perked up. "One of the movie websites?" she asked. "I hear they got the new _Faster and Furiouser_ movie streaming all day!"

It was Girls' Night, as Yesss had coined it. Every now and then, she and Vanellope would spend the evening together, getting some food and then doing whatever they wanted until sunrise. It was a lot like what she and Ralph would do, except this time there were a lot more options - she could choose to go to the arcade _or_ the internet, for starters - and it was just girls. No boys allowed, as Yesss had said.

Usually it was during a night Ralph had Bad Anon meetings; he still went to those in addition to the book club, saying that it'd be best if he continued going to 'a warm, understanding environment to cope with long-standing feelings of inadequacy and depression.'

(Obviously he had been quoting someone. But everyone agreed it was a good idea.)

In any case, Vanellope and Yesss frequently had their Girls' Nights, Vanellope leaving Slaughter Race and Yesss leaving the BuzzzTube office, and they just spent the night having fun. Like...

...like family.

Normally Yesss went along with whatever Vanellope suggested, providing it was age-appropriate and safe, but tonight, when Vanellope suggested a movie, Yesss pursed her lips and shook her head. "Mmmmm, not yet, honey. I want us to do something other than sitting quietly in the dark for a few hours."

"Oh. Yeah, sure, okay." Vanellope shrugged, not thinking anything of it. "Then how 'bout we go to one of the spots websites? There's a new skating rink I'm trying to get Ralph to try, but-"

The mention of Ralph made Yesss pause again.

And it did not go unnoticed.

"Hey..." Vanellope frowned. "Wait a sec. You wanna do Grown-Up Talkin', don't ya?"

Yesss's smile was wry. "You can tell, huh?"

"You want us to actually _do_ something, you're going all weird and quiet when I mention Ralph... What's up?" Her frown turned into a look of horror. "Oh no, did something happen to Ralph and I didn't know? Did his BuzzzTube get hacked, did he run into a virus-"

"Whoa whoa whoa!" Yesss put her hands on Vanellope's shoulders just as the poor girl started to flicker erratically. "No! No, nothing like that. It's just..."

Vanellope calmed down, but only a little. She stopped glitching, but she watched with large, anxious eyes as Yesss looked downward, twisting her mouth. Clearly looking for the words.

Finally, Yesss heaved a sigh, running her hand through her hair - a stylish bob today. "Okay. You know Ralph and I are good friends."

"Yeah?"

"And you know you're my friend, too. You know I worry about you just as much as Ralph does. And you know I don't want you to be unhappy."

"Yesss, where are you going with this?" The glitching didn't come back, but her frown deepened.

"Just. Give me a sec. You guys both mean a lot to me, but your dad..." Pause. "But lately..." Another pause. And a deep breath. "Cards on the table, baby. Ralph's probably going to bring this up himself after his Bad Anon meeting, but I wanted to ask you, too."

"Yeeeaaaah?"

_'Just spit it out. You can tell someone they're banned, you can do this.'_ Yesss inhaled. "We want to know if you're okay with me... _seeing_ him."

Vanellope stared for a moment. Then her eyes grew bigger as comprehension dawned. "Oh."

"Yeah."

"Whoa."

"Yup."

"So..." Vanellope looked at her burger. "So it's serious with you guys?"

"M-hm."

"...like, how serious? Hand-holding serious, or gross kisses serious?"

"_Arm-linking_ serious."

"Oh." Vanellope sat quietly for a few moments, apparently deep in thought. Her fingers tapped on her hamburger bun as she chewed on the inside of her cheek. "So...that'd mean, what? I'd see you guys less because you're doing grown-up romance stuff, or...?"

"It means you'd see me a little more often, and usually with Ralph," Yesss explained. "It means that...in a way, I'd probably be your mom."

"More than you are already?"

Yesss paused for a moment, feeling her chest flutter. Damn, the kid was going to make her cry with that one sentence. "Yeah," she said at last. "More than I am already. I know you guys consider me family now, but... This would make it a little more.

But it also means that sometimes, yeah, we would be doing grown-up romance stuff so we'd have to delay our visits a little bit, or work around them so our schedule would be busier. And it means you'd have one extra adult to listen to." At that part, Yesss put her hand on Vanellope's head and lightly pushed her down, messing up her hair. Vanellope just snorted a laugh and swatted her hand away. "In some ways it won't change anything, but in other ways it's going to be a big change. And we wanna know if you're okay with this being a thing before we do anything else. You come first, Vanellope," Yesss added, her tone suddenly far more serious than it'd been before.

Vanellope, who'd been rubbing her hair back into place, paused. _'You come first._'

She knew, in a sense. She came first in Ralph's eyes, she knew that. But it was always unspoken. To hear it out loud, and from Yesss, was different. It sounded more Official. Final.

But it didn't affect her decision.

"Yeah. I'm okay with it."

"Are you _sure_?" Yesss lowered her visor to peer at Vanellope over the top of it. "It's definitely going to be different, possibly forever. Are you okay with that?"

"Well, I mean, yeah." Vanellope shrugged limply. "I see you a lot anyway, you're basically family, I've - I've already called you 'Mom' once." She didn't mean the sarcastic way she did it, either. Vanellope's thoughts went back to the day BuzzzTube got a virus that spread to Yesss. Back to her frantic, frightened cries of "Mom!' as she gripped her coat in fear and desperation. Even if she never did that again, what had been done had been done. It was out there. "So... So yeah, I'd. Be cool with that. You and Ralph, I mean."

A long pause. Then Yesss exhaled, visibly relieved as she pushed her visor back up her nose. "Alright. Alright," she said again, brighter. "Thanks, baby."

"Would you have gone with Ralph even if I said no?"

"Oh, absolutely not. I meant it when I said you would come first in this."

"...Ralph's gonna do the same thing later, isn't he?"

"It'll probably take twice as long for him to get the words out but. Yeah." Yesss smiled down at Vanellope. "Wanna meet him at Tapper's, so we can help him out?"

"Yeah, okay!" Vanellope hopped down, taking her half-eaten burger with her. She'd finish it with a root beer. "You know, Ralph keeps talking about you beating him at belching over there."

"Oh does he?"

"Yeah, but I don't believe him. He gets all weird and insists you did it, but nobody else heard or saw it, and I've _never_ heard you burp before. So I'm pretty sure he dreamed it and thinks it's real."

Yesss's smile had a mischievous, smug air to it for the entire twenty minutes it took for Ralph to meet them.


End file.
